Boredom Busters

 What's your favorite Super Bowl snack?

Why not get busy in the kitchen and create your own snack? This one has 2 major food groups, fruit and chocolate!

 Not into the big game?

Another important day is just around the corner.

The special day of the year where we tell friends and family that we love them! It's not too early to create that special memento of your love.....

This time of year is difficult too because all of the new seed catalogs begin to arrive in the mail.

Plan your garden, map it out, dream of fresh picked veggies!

#tbt First toy store....

Hamley's is the oldest toy shop in the world

 and one of the world's best-known retailers of toys. 

Its flagship store in London is across 7 floors with more than 50,000 toys. Located at Nos. 188-196 Regent Street, it is considered one of the city's major tourist attractions, receiving around five million visitors per year. The chain has several other outlets in the United Kingdom and others worldwide.

Hamleys is the oldest and largest toy shop in the world. It is named after William Hamley, who founded a toy shop called "Noah's Ark"  in London in 1760. Ownership of the shop passed through the family, and by the time it was operated by Hamley's grandsons in 1837, the store had become famous, counting royalty and nobility among its customers^.

Weird Steam Punk science!

Let's talk Steampunk!

 What weird science was popular during the Victorian Era?

The Victorians had a penchant for turning new inventions into medical treatments. Electropathy involved using electricity to alleviate medical problems ranging from gout, muscular weakness, rheumatism and torpid liver to, you guessed it, hysteria. Essentially, patients paid to be given electrical shocks. Magnetism promised to relieve pain, grow hair, and cure a variety of complaints including indigestion. A notable quack device was the “electric corset,” actually powered by magnets.

Tools for espionage and detection gained some popularity in 19th-century Europe and America. The famed French criminalist Eugène François Vidocq invented many detective tools, including indelible ink and ballistics testing, and was known for using disguises and surveillance in his investigations. His methods inspired many aspiring detectives, including Allan Pinkerton, founder of the Pinkerton Detective Agency. The American Civil War was also a high time for espionage, with both sides employing whatever tools they could think of to gather and pass along intelligence undetected. On top of that, the later Victorian Era came with a number of clever gadgets and self-defense tools. While some of them never quite caught on, others were forerunners for devices we still use today.

Game Review

Set

The Family Game of Visual Perception

Players: 1 or more
Ages: 6 to adult
Play time: 30 min

SET is a card game of quick recognition and deduction. Each card contains one of three symbols (squiggles, diamonds, ovals) in varying numbers (up to three), colors (purple, green, red), and degrees of shading. A dealer arranges 12 cards, face up, and the players--without taking turns--hastily scrutinize the images for logical "sets" of three cards linked by combinations of sameness or difference. It's not as complicated as it sounds: examples include a trio of paired ovals with increasing levels of shading between cards, or disparate symbols in different colors which increase in number on each card (card one has a green squiggle, card two a pair of purple ovals, card three a trio of diamonds). The trick is to keep calm while trying to make the rapid connections. The Darwinian nature of the game (remember: everyone plays simultaneously) is certain to cause some feistiness among more competitive players. 

FAQ's

Why is the sky blue?

A clear cloudless day-time sky is blue because molecules in the air scatter blue light from the sun more than they scatter red light. When we look towards the sun at sunset, we see red and orange colors because the blue light has been scattered out and away from the line of sight.

In other words, the sky is blue cause it is.

 

Did ya know?

Puzzle Fun Facts!

1. In the USA more people enjoy jigsaws each year than any other table game. 

2. The fastest way to do a jigsaw is to sort all the different colors into groups before you begin. The real 'Experts' stand up all the time because sitting cramps their style!

3. Although it may seem odd, it will take you four times as long to do a 1,000 piece jigsaw as it will to do a 500 piece jigsaw. This is because each time you double the number of pieces you quadruple the difficulty. Before you start a 4,000 piece jigsaw, bear in mind that it will take you SIXTY FOUR times longer to complete it than it takes you to complete a 500 piece one!

4. The most pieces ever assembled together in a single jigsaw was 209,250 at the Grand Formosa Regent Hotel in Taiwan.

5. The first jigsaws (called 'dissected maps') were cut nearly two and a half centuries ago.

6. Craftsmen are constantly developing ways to make it more difficult to solve jigsaws. Innovations include 'The Phoney Corner' (a fake corner piece in the MIDDLE of a puzzle) and 'Color Line Cutting' (a piece cut exactly along the dividing line between different colors - a pure green piece can then join a pure blue piece and neither piece gives a clue to the color of its neighbor).

Boredom Busters

 

Start your Snowdown Costumes
Snowdown starts next Wednesday with all sorts of fun activities for folks of all ages and this year's theme is STEAMPUNK! Add gears and cogs to a top hat, throw on some goggles and boots and get ready to celebrate Durango's most anticipated winter event!



 
Start doing a "Word of the Day"
Need to expand your vocabulary? Try doing a word of the day! Pick out a word from the dictionary and memorize the definition, then throughout the day, try to use the word in at least one conversation. You will undoubtedly make your vocabulary grow exponentially!


 

Start a dice collection
Have you ever lost dice from a board game? If you have a dice collection, you would never have to worry about misplaced dice again. You could even make up your own dice games!

Dinosaurs 101

Feathered Dinosaurs?

Yup! Recent discoveries show that a majority of dinosaurs were probably covered in feathers! Fossils found in China and Siberia have revealed an ancestor to most dinosaurs that were covered in tufts of feathers. The Kulindadromeus zabaikalicus (KOO-lin-dah-DRO-mee-us ZAH-bike-kal-ik-kuss) had downy feathers, most likely for insulation, and scales down their back and tale. The scales on Kulindadromeus resemble the scaly skin seen on some birds, the study says, which also argues for a deep genetic root linking dinosaurs to birds. Maybe the robin in your backyard has some distant relatives in the Jurassic Period!

#tbt

 Snowdown 2014

Safari, so good! Zebras everywhere!

Missy K and friends!

Weird Science Wednesday

Make Your Own Fake Snot As disgusting as it might sound to some people, let's make some fake snot! Snot actually serves an important purpose in our body so this experiment is not all about grossing out our friends, although that's certainly part of the fun.  What You Will Need: Boiling water (be careful with this) A cup Gelatin Corn syrup A teaspoon A fork Instructions: Fill half a cup with boiling water. Add three teaspoons of gelatin to the boiling water. Let it soften before stirring with a fork. Add a quarter of a cup of corn syrup. Stir the mixture again with your fork and look at the long strands of gunk that have formed. As the mixture cools slowly add more water, small amounts at a time. What's happening? Mucus is made mostly of sugars and protein. Although different than the ones found in the real thing, this is exactly what you used to make your fake snot. The long, fine strings you could see inside your fake snot when you moved it around are protein strands. These protein strands make snot sticky and capable of stretching.

Sponsored Links

For more crazy experiments check out http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/experiments/fakesnot.html

Game Review

STACK UP!

Spin The Spinner and get Stacking! Can you stack 12 blocks before the Stack Smasher get to the tower and topples it? Stack Up! has three levels of game play so the game grows with children and kids of different ages can play together. Start by spinning the spinner. If it lands on a color, kids playing at Level 1 use their hands to place that color block on the board. Kids playing at Level 2 use the wood ends of the Stack Sticks to stack the block, and Level 3 players use the foam ends. If the spinner lands on the Stack Smasher, move him forward 1 space at all levels of play. If the spinner lands on a Challenge, kids playing at Level 1 make a stack with any two blocks and use their hands to place them on the board. In Levels 2 and 3, you get to play with a cooperative, 2-player challenge! Draw a Challenge Card and work with the player on your left. Using either the wood or foam ends of the Stack Sticks, work together to perform the challenge while moving a block onto the stack. Stack all 12 blocks before the Stack Smasher makes his way around the board and you all win!

Why families love this item:

Learning color matching and balance are important development skills for young kids, and it's more fun when you're learning those skills together! Stack Up! fosters cooperation and collaboration with a few fun challenges in the mix. Cooperative games create non-stressful play situations and encourage creative problem solving.

#tbt

Just checking....

to see if chickens have lips...

or fingers?

4 Corners 

Motorcycle rally,

the annual event every fall. Miniature style!

Game Review

Chicks go Boom

• Roll the die and race to toss your chickens in the coop!
• Hurry, though, because that coop's gonna pop up and the chickens are gonna go flying!
• The coop pops up randomly, and if you're the player with the die, you'll get stuck with more chickens!
• It Crazy fun!

FAQ's

Can You Solve a Rubik's Cube?

My answer? No I cannot solve a Rubik's Cube. I am pretty bad at them actually, but I have seen people come in and fix the thing in about 45 seconds! Its crazy fast!

Did ya know?

The Times Square Ball Drop!

The Times Square Ball is a time ball located in New York City's Times Square. Located on the roof of One Times Square, the ball is a prominent part of a New Year's Eve celebration in Times Square colloquially known as the ball drop, where the ball descends 141 feet (43 m) in 60 seconds down a specially designed flagpole, beginning at 11:59 p.m. ET, and resting at midnight to signal the start of the new year.

The event was first organized by Adolph Ochs, owner of The New York Times newspaper, as a successor to a series of New Year's Eve fireworks displays he held at the building to promote its status as the new headquarters of the Times, while the ball itself was designed by Artkraft Strauss. First held on December 31, 1907, to welcome 1908, the ball drop has been held annually since, except in 1942 and 1943 in observance of wartime blackouts. The ball's design has also been updated over the years to reflect improvements in lighting technology; the original design was made from wood and iron and lit with 100 incandescent light bulbs, while its current incarnation features a computerized LED lighting system and an outer surface consisting of triangle-shaped crystal panels. Since 2009, the current ball has been displayed atop the building year-round, while the original, smaller version of the current ball that was used in 2008 is on display at Times Square's visitor center.

Boredom Busters

 
Make New Years Resolutions
It's 2015! A new year for new activities. Make a resolution to do something for yourself or others in this coming year. It can be to eat healthier, or to help more around the house.  Whatever it is, make sure you stick to it!

 


Discover a Dinosaur
Fossilize, dig up, and reconstruct a dinosaur skeleton replica. Learn how fossils form, how paleontologists excavate them, and how dinosaur bones are pieced together to form complete skeletons. Model the process of fossilization by burying your dinosaur bones in layers of plaster "rock." Carefully excavate the bones from the plaster using the tools and techniques of paleontologists. Finally, assemble the dinosaur bones into a complete skeleton.





Go Sledding
Its wintertime and we should take advantage of the white fluffy stuff outside! Grab some friends and a sled or tube to make the most epic sledding hill EVER! See how far you can go or if you can get style points from changing your position on the sled while in motion!

Dinosaurs 101

Because we are ringing in the new year, lets celebrate with the newest dinosaur! This guy was discovered in September of 2014 and is one of the biggest dinosaurs ever found! Meet the Dreadnoughtus schrani. He tips the scale at over 65 tons and was over two stories tall at his shoulder! This dino was found by Kenneth Lacovara who is excited to see what this creature can tell us about massive dinosaurs. It is being compared to a living building! That's one Huge Dinosaur!

This is Kenneth with one of the Dreadnoughtus schrani in Argentina.